The paper deals with the regulation of professions in Italy. It is a very traditional system of regulation based on inputs control. This regulation is clearly excessive for most of the professions. In fact, market failures – both in terms of information asymmetries and externalities – do not require and/or justify the present licensing system. Rather, for most of the professions, licensing should be substituted by a weaker certification system, operated by professional associations, that should lose their public law status. Competition between these associations, which would have a private character, could perform many of the functions, like control on malpractice and sanctioning which are currently delegated to the appropriate Orders. In fact, it is no longer true – at least for most of the professions – that output regulation is an inherently difficult task for professional services.